Who is James Paxton ?

posted by Steve Risser -
Nov 20, 2018

Yesterday the Yankees acquired James Paxton from the Mariners for top prospect Justus Sheffield, Dom Thompson-Willams and Erik Swanson. This move should upgrade the Yankees rotation which was the biggest reason they were eliminated by the Red Sox last year in the ALDS.

Paxton has been with the Mariners since September of 2013 his career record is 41-26 with a 3.44 ERA. But Paxton has been really good for the Mariners the last two years. In 2017 he was 12-5 with a 2.98 ERA in 24 starts. In 2018 he started the season red hot he was 6-1 with a 3.02 ERA in early June, he cooled off the last three and half months of the season but finished the year at 11-6 with an ERA of 3.76 in 28 starts.

With the Yankees resigning CC Sabathia and having two solid guys at the top of the rotation in Tanaka and Severino, Paxton should add depth to a very good rotation the question is do they continue to upgrade this rotation by resigning J.A Happ or do they go after Corbin, Keuchel or Morton in free agency.